Scientists have uncovered a massive, unexplored landscape of hills and valleys shaped by ancient rivers under the Antarctic ice, frozen for millions of years. This hidden expanse, larger than Belgium, has been undisturbed for over 34 million years but faces the risk of exposure due to human-induced global warming, according to British and American researchers.
Stewart Jamieson, a glaciologist from Durham University, emphasized that this is an entirely undiscovered terrain that no one has seen before.
“What is exciting is that it’s been hiding there in plain sight,” Jamieson added, emphasising that the researchers had not used new data, only a new approach. The land underneath the East Antarctic Ice Sheet is less well known than the surface of Mars, Jamieson said.
To explore the hidden landscape under the Antarctic ice for millions of years, scientists typically use radio-echo sounding, where planes send radio waves into the ice and analyze the echoes. However, covering the vast expanse of Antarctica with this method is a significant challenge. Instead, researchers employed satellite images to identify the valleys and ridges located more than two kilometers beneath the ice. The “undulating” ice surface serves as a “ghost image” that conceals these distinct features beneath it.
By combining satellite images with radio-echo sounding data, scientists revealed a landscape with river-formed deep valleys and rugged hills, similar to some on the Earth’s surface.
Stewart Jamieson likened the newly discovered landscape under the Antarctic ice to looking out of an airplane window at a mountainous region, resembling northern Wales’ Snowdonia area. This vast 32,000 square kilometer area was previously inhabited by trees, forests, and likely various animals.
‘But then the ice came along, and it was “frozen in time” ‘, Jamieson said.
The exact time since sunlight reached this concealed landscape is challenging to ascertain, but scientists are reasonably certain it has been at least 14 million years. Stewart Jamieson’s educated guess is that it was last exposed more than 34 million years ago when Antarctica initially froze over.
In addition to this discovery, some of the researchers had previously found a lake the size of a city beneath the Antarctic ice. They believe that there may be more ancient landscapes waiting to be uncovered.
The study’s authors expressed concern that global warming could endanger this newly revealed landscape, as current conditions are trending toward those that existed 14 to 34 million years ago when temperatures were three to seven degrees Celsius warmer than today. However, it’s important to note that this landscape is located hundreds of kilometers inland from the ice’s edge, so any potential exposure is a distant possibility.
The newly discovered landscape is situated hundreds of kilometers inland from the ice’s edge, meaning any potential exposure is distant. Despite past warming events, like the Pliocene period 3 to 4.5 million years ago, not causing exposure, there is hope. However, it’s uncertain when a “runaway reaction” of melting, if any, might occur, according to Jamieson.
The study was published shortly after scientists issued a warning that the melting of the adjacent West Antarctic Ice Sheet is expected to significantly speed up in the coming decades, even if global efforts to reduce global warming are successful.
The West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) is one of two major ice sheets in Antarctica, the other being the East Antarctic Ice Sheet.
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